Pulp shredding and treating machine



Oct: 6, 1953 c; w, MORDEN 2,654,294

PULP SHREDDING AND TREATING MACHINE Filed Aug. 22, 1950 Y 4 SheetsSheet l INVENTOR. CHARLES W MORDEN ATTORNEY Oct. 6, 1953 c. w. MORDEN 2,654,294

PULP SHREDDING AND TREATING MACHINE Filed Aug. 22, 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. CHARLES W MORD EN ATTORNEY Oct. 6, 1953 C. MORDEN PULP SHREDD ING AND TREATING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Aug. 22, 1950 INVENTOR. CHARLES W MORDEN BY ATTORNEY Oct. 6, 1953 c, w, MORDEN 2,654,294

PULP SHREDDING AND TREATING MACHINE Filed Aug. 22, 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 HIM), """"';Z6\ M|\ 1 YIIIWM um. 1

Li W

ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 6, 1953 PULP SHREDDING AND TREATING MACHINE Charles W. Morden, Portland, Oregn, assignor to.

Morden Machines Company, Portland, Oren, a corporation of Oregon Application August 22, 1950, Serial No. 180,746

(on. sz-zs) 8 Claims.

1 This invention relates to the preparation of fibrous material used in the manufacture of paper and related products, and, more specifically, has

to do with the treating of such material when received in the form of dried pulp sheets, old paper stock, and the like, breaking up, shredding and slushing such material and further subjecting the pulp fibers to refining action so as to brin them into proper condition for desired use.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved machine capable of performing this treatment on such material in a controllable and highly efficient manner.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved pulp treating machine which can be so regulated that the operation may, when desired, be limited to the breaking up and shredding of the material, or may also be made to include debundling of the 'fibers and subseequent'refining of the fibers to any extent required.

An additional object'of this invention is to provide an improved machine which will be capable of increased efllciency both in shredding the pulp material and refining the pulp fibers.

These objects I attain by providing a tank to contain water and the material to be treated, by mounting in the tank an axially adjustable rotor, by providing a stationary impingement ring surrounding the rotor, by equipping the rotor with peripherally-located, prong-like, shredding and attritioning blades, and by forming the impingement ring with a conically-shaped attritioning surface having peripheral shearing teeth, so arranged that the attritioning surface and peripheral shearing teeth will function in cooperation with the prong-like blades of the rotor in the performance of a shredding and attritioning action; whereby the blades will not only throw the material to be treated against the attritioning surface of the stationary ring and shredding teeth, but also, depending upon the axial adjustment of the rotor, may be caused to exert a controllable rubbing andbrushing action on the material in conjunction with the attritioning surface of the ring; and whereby the prong-like blades, by themselves, will also exert a tendency to tear and shred larger pieces of sheeted material so as to reduce such pieces to sizes which can more readily be acted upon by the co-functioning action of the blades and stationary impingement ring; and, in brief, by forming and arranging the rotor and stationary ring and related members, and causing the various parts to function, as hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of my machine with a portion of the tank wall broken away for the sake of clarity and also to show the location of the rotor and the stationary impingement ring within the tank;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken on the axial line of the rotor assembly and the stationary impingement ring, drawn to a larger scale;

Fig. 3 is a corresponding front elevation of the rotor assembly and stationary impingement ring;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the rotor and stationary impingement ring, showing these two elements together in their cooperating relationship but entirely removed from the tank;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side elevation of the rotor alone, thiseview corresponding to line 5--5 of Fig. 2, but drawn to a larger scale;

Fig. 6 is a plan section of the tank taken on line 6-6 of Fig. l; and

Fig. 7 is a section through the adjusting mechanism for the rotor assembly taken on line l| of Fig. 1, and drawn to a larger scale.

My improved machine includes a pulp tank 10 (Figs. 1 and 6), which may be of any suitable shape and construction, but preferably includes a substantially cylindrical wall having flat vertical sections on opposite sides, the tank and associated rotor-adjusting and driving mechanism being mounted on a suitable base II. The tank I0 has a substantially semi-spherical bottom I 2, a section of which is cut away to provide a bottom recess or open chamber l3 for collecting foreign material, the chamber I3 having vertical side walls and a bottom. A discharge outlet and outlet pipe l4 lead from the bottom of the tank and a suitable control valve (not shown) is located in the outlet pipe M. The outer end of the chamber l3 has a removable cover plate l5 which may be opened for the purpose of removing dirt, tramp metal or other foreign material which will collect from time to time in chamber I3.

The fiat section of the tank wall directly above the chamber I3 has a large circular opening leading to an outer housing I8 which in turn is connected with an outlet pipe through which pulp may be discharged during continuous operation of the machine, as opposed to batch operations. A suitable screen (not shown) covers the tank opening into the housing I8, and suitable means (not shown), including a control valve, are provided for draining off the pulp continuously as and when desired.

The fiat section of the opposite tank wall, thus opposite the chamber l3 and above the semispherical bottom l2, also has a large circular opening which is closed on the outside of the tank by a housing It (Fig. 1) secured to the tank 3 wall by suitable screws or bolts. This housing I is formed with a central boss which suppor s a packing gland around a horizontal rotating shaft I! The shaft i1 is mounted in a cylindrical bearing housing I! (see also Fig. 7) containing radial and thrust bearings for the shaft ii. The cylindrical housing I8 is supported in a cradle 20 and surmounted with a pair of yokes 28', secured to the top of the housing If, the cradle and yokes serving to hold the cylindrical housing It in place while permitting longitudinal movement of the cylindrical housing i9 and therewith of the bearings and shaft 11. A hand wheel shaft 22, vertically mounted in the housing 2 I, has a worm gear 23, which engages a gear 24' (Fig. '7) keyed to a horizontal adjusting shaft 25 The adJusting shaft 25 is mounted in suitable bearings (not shown) which permit rotation of the shaft 25 but hold the shaft against axial movement. Screw threads on the adjusting shaft 25 engage corresponding threads on the interior of a split bushing on the end of an arm 25 attached to the cylindrical housing It. Thus axial adjustment of the cylindrical housing I8 and therewith of the shaft i! may be accomplished by manual turning of the hand wheel and shaft 22. The shaft I1 is rotated by pulley and belt connection from a motor indicated at 21 in Fig. l.

On the end of the shaft II which extends into the tank It a specially formed rotor (indicated as a whole by the reference character 21), is keyed (Fig. 2) and this rotor is firmly held in place on the tapered and threaded end of the shaft I! by a nut 28 which has a rounded top surface and which is set in a recess provided in the face of the rotor.

The rotor 21 constitutes one of the important elements of my improved pulp shredding and treating machine, and while the rotor may be formed of different parts secured together, I prefer to have the entire rotor made from a single integral casting. The form and construction of the rotor will be understood from Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5. The rotor 21 has a circular hub or main body portion, the face of which is slightly conical, and the periphery 28 of which is cylindrical.

A central boss 80 extends from the rear side of the rotor hub and is formed with a tapered bore to accommodate the tapered end of the rotor shaft I! as previously described. A series of prong-like blades 3!, of novel shape and formation, extend obliquely upwardly with respect to the front side of the rotor hub and outwardly from the peripheral portion of the front face of the rotor hub and out beyond the periphery of this portion of the rotor.

These prong-like blades 8|, as shown clearly in Figs. 3 and 4, also extend obliquely away from the direction of rotation of the: rotor, the rotational direction being indicated by the arrows in Figs. 3 and 5. The ridges 32 of these blades lie in a frusto-conical surface sloping upwardly with respect to the front face of the rotor hub from which they start. The under side faces 33 of the blades 3i, beyond the periphery of the rotor hub, also lie in a frusto-conical surface which slopes upwardly but at a slightly greater angle than the conical surface in which the ridges 82 lie, as shown most clearly in Figs. 2 and 5. In cross section the blades 3! are in the form of an inverted U. Thus each blade has an under side central channel 34 which extends beyond the periphery of the rotor hub to the outer end of side faces 88 on pingement ring 85 is formed with a frusto-conical inclined face which is inclined at an angle of preferably nearly 45 with respect to the plane of rotation of the rotor. This inclined face is formed with a series of shearing and shredding teeth 36. The shape of these teeth can be seen most clearly in Fig. 3. Each tooth has side edges preferably extending radially with respect to the common axis of the rotor and stationary ring and the outer end at one side edge is cut away obliquely in the direction of rotation of the rotor. The top face of each tooth 38 is also formed with a groove 81, terminating near the end of the tooth, thus providing in effect a pair of attritioning bars on each tooth. The bottoms of these grooves 31 tagzthsubstantially parallel to the top faces of the The grooves 28 between the teeth 88 are similar in depth to the grooves 81 for about two-thirds of their radial length, but, as shown most clearly in Fig. 2, the bottom of each groove 38 drops suddenly to a deeper recess 88 near the outer end of the groove so that these deeper recesses 88 in effect increase the height of the individual teeth at the outer periphery of the stationary ring 85.

As will be apparent from Fig. 2, the under side faces 83 of the prong-like blades 3i lie in a frustoconical surface capable of mating with the frustoconical face of the stationary ring 35.

A narrow annular space separates the inner periphery of the stationary ring 35 and the ad jacent periphery 29 of the rotor hub. Clearing bars 40 (Fig. 5), on the periphery 28 of the rotor hub not only keep this annular space clear but also act to throw material entering this space back against the under side faces 33 of the pronglike blades of the rotor, whereupon this material is again subjected to action between the blades and the frusto-conical face of the surrounding stationary ring 35.

The rotor 21, with its peripherally-located prong-like blades, specially formed and arranged as described, and the stationary ring 85, with its inclined attritioning surface and peripheral shearing and shredding teeth 35, combine to enable a multiple, variable and adjustable treatment to be given to the fibrous material in the tank iii. The rotor exerts a pumping action on the fibrous material, and, as the material comes into contact with the rotor blades, it is thrust beyond the periphery of the rotor and thus a continuous circulation of the material is set up in the tank. The contact of the material by the rotor blades and the thrust of the material against and past the toothed periphery of the stationary ring produces essentially a shredding action on the flbrous'material.

The teeth 88 on the outer edge of the inclined face of the ring member 85 are adapted to perform both a shredding action and a shearing action. As the material is thrust against and over this outer periphery of the ring member, the formation and arrangement of the peripheral teeth, and, in particular, the fact that the face of the stationary ring is inclined with respect to the plane of rotation of the rotor, so that the material passing outwardly under the pumping the blade. This blade formation cons q n ly 10 O t blades is forced into encounter with these peripheral teeth of the ring, contribute to the performance of a special shredding action. When the rotor is so adjusted that the extending portions of the prong-like blades 3| are in close running relationship with the ing teeth 36, the movement of the blades over th teeth also produces a shearing action.

As previously mentioned, the radially extending grooves 31 on the teeth 36 and the grooves between the teeth on the inclined face of the stationary ring member. 35 cause this inclined face to constitute an attritioning surface, and, when the rotor is so adjusted that the pronglike blades move closely over this attritioning surface, the result is the performance of what might be described as a debundling and attritioning action on the pulp fibers, the effectiveness of which is increased by the fact that the prong-like blades present two edges with an outwardly-extending groove between them to the material forced against the inclined face of the surrounding ring. This final attritioning action can be regulated by the amount of clearance between the blades 3! and the attritioning surface or inclined face of the stationary ring 35. Thus, by adjusting the position of the rotor, which is easily done through the medium of the hand wheel shaft 22, the clearance between the blades and the inclined attritioning surface of the ring can be increased to the extent that the attritioning action becomes negligible. On the other hand, clearance between the under side faces of the blades 3| and the attritioning surface of the ring can be reduced so as to cause an attritioning or refining action to be performed on the pulp fibers to any reasonable extent desired. Thus merely by longitudinal axial adjustment of the rotor, my machine can be operated initially for the purpose of exerting primarily a shredding a'ction on the material in the tank, or can be operated to perform a combined shredding and attritioning action, or finally, when no further shredding is required, can be operated mainly for refining the shredded and slushed pulp fibers.

An important feature of my improved machine is the fact that the face of the ring 35, with its attritioning surface and its outer peripheral shearing and shredding teeth, is inclined at a substantial angle with respect to the plane of rotation of the rotor. The fibers on which the desired attritioning action is to be performed are not merely caused to pass over the attritioning surface but are forcibly impacted against it. The effect might be described in part as momentarily subjecting the fibers to changed hydrostatic pressure under such impact and their concentration on the working attritioning surface.

Thus the special arrangement and formation of the blades 3l of the rotor and the inclined and toothed periphery of the cooperating stationary ring are important contributing factors in the attainment of more efficient shredding action with my improved machine, while the sloping attritioning surface provided by the stationary ring is likewise an important contributing factor in the attainment of more efiicient treatment of the pulp fibers released by the shredding 8 pletion of the treatment of each batch, withdrawn through the bottom outlet ll of the tank.

The housing It (Figs. 1 and 2) has a connection for a pipe H which may be used as an inlet pipe, if desired, for introducing some other grades of mixed or slushed pulp, or clay or other fillers, or in fact any other mixing materials, to be mixed withthe material being treated in the tank l0. The mixing material when delivered into the housing It through the pipe 4|, will pass through the narrow annular space between the inner periphery of the stationary ring 35 and the periphcry 29 of the rotor hub, and be received between In this manner a highly satisfactory and efficient,

as well as a convenient, meansof adding mixing materials to the material being treated in the tank I0 is provided, and this is a further feature in my improved machine. v

In my machine shredding action may be said to be produced first by engagement of the material with the upwardly-sloping prong-like rotor blades, this being especially true of' the larger pieces of the material. Secondly, shredding action occurs as a result of the forcible contact of the material with the outer toothed periphery of the frusto-conical stationary ring, particularly with smaller pieces. Then the combined action of the under side of the blades passing over the toothed surface and periphery of the ring produces also a shearing action. Finally, as previously explained, an attritioning action is attainable, as desired, with the cooperation of the under side faces of the blades and the attrition ing surface of the ring, byadjusting the position of the rotor with respect to the stationary ring.

Modifications could be made in the form and slope of the attritioning surface of the stationary ring and in the peripheral teeth, and other minor modifications would of course be possible in the construction of my machine without departing from the principle'of my invention.

I claim:

1.- In a machine for' treating fibrous material, a rotor having a main hub portion, a stationary ring concentric with said rotor hub, said stationary ring having a frusto-conical attritioning surface inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation of said rotor hub, shearing and shredding teeth on the outer periphery of said stationary ring, a plurality of blades on the face of said rotor hub also inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation of said rotor hub and extending beyond the periphery of said hub and over the frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring to the outer periphery of the shredding teeth on said ring, whereby, with the rotation of said hub, said blades will cause said material with which they come into contact to be impinged against said frusto-conical surface of said ring, the under side faces of said blades overlying said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring, and said under side faces lying in a frusto-conical surface capable of mating with said .surface of said ring, whereby said 'blades can move over said frusto-co'nical attrihub portion, a stationary ring concentric with a said rotor hub, said stationary ring having a frusto-conical surface inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation oi'said rotor hub, shearing and shredding teeth on the outer periphery of said stationary ring, a plurality of blades on the face of said rotor hub also inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation of said rotor hub and extending beyond the periphery of said rotor hub and over the frusto-conical surface of said stationary ring to the outer periphery of said ring, whereby, with the rotation of said hub, said blades will cause said material with which they come into contact to be impinged against said frusto-conical surface of said ring, the under side faces of said blades overlying said frusto-conical surface of said stationary ring, and said under side faces lying in a frusto-conical surface capable of mating with said surface of said ring, whereby said blades can move over said frusto-conical surface of said ring with very slight clearance, and the top ridges of said blades extending in a frusto-conical surface inclined at a less angle with respect to the plane of rotation of said rotor hub than the under side faces of said blades.

3. In a machine of the character described for treating fibrous material, a rotor having a main hub portion, said rotor hub having a conical face, a stationary ring concentric with said rotor hub, said stationary ring having a frusto-conical attritioning surface inclined in an opposite direction with respect to the conical face of said rotor hub, and inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation of the periphery of said hub, shearing and shredding teeth on the outer periphery of said stationary ring, aplurality of prong-like blades on the face of said hub also inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation of the periphery of said rotor hub and extending over the frustoconical attritioning surface of said stationary ring to the outer periphery of the shredding teeth on said ring, whereby, with the rotation of said hub, said blades will cause the material contacting said hub to be impinged against said ring, said blades being inverted U shaped in cross section, the under side of each blade having an open central channel extending to the outer end of the blade and producing a pair of spaced faces on the under side of each blade, the under side faces of said blades overlying said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring and lying in a frusto-conical surface capable of mating with said surface of said ring, whereby said blades can move over said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said ring with very slight clearance, means for causing longitudinal axial adjustment of said rotor, whereby to adjust the clearance between said blades and said frustoconical surface of said ring, said blades being regularly spaced and positioned at an angle with respect to the radii of said rotor hub and extend ing obliquely away from the direction of rotation of said rotor;

4. In a machine of the character described for treating fibrous material, a rotor having a main hub portion, a stationary ring concentric with said rotor hub, said stationary ring having a frusto-conical attritioning surface inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation of said rotor, shearing and shredding teeth on said stationary ring, one edge in alignment with a radius of said rotor hub, another edge of each shearing and shredding tooth having an outer portion arranged at angularity with a radius of said rotor hub and extending obliquely forwardly with respect to the direction of rotation of said rotor, grooves between said teeth extending inwardly to the inner periphery of said ring, said grooves deepened considerably near their outer ends, grooves on the top faces of said teeth extending radially with respect to said rotor hub and terminating near the outer ends of said teeth, said latter mentioned grooves and said grooves between said teeth forming an attritioning surface on the frusto-conical face of said ring, a plurality of blades extending obliquely upwardly from the face of said rotor hub neanthe periphery of said rotor hub and extending over the frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring to the outer periphery of said ring, the under side faces of said blades overlying said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring, and said under side faces lying in a frusto-conical surface capable of mating with said surface of said ring, whereby said blades can move over said frustoconical attritioning surface of said ring with very slight clearance, said blades being regularly spaced and positioned at an angle with respect to the radii of said rotor hub and extending obliquely away from the direction of rotation of said rotor, and means for causing longitudinal axial adjustment of said rotor, whereby to adjust the clearance between said blades and said frustoconical surface of said ring.

5. A machine for treating fibrous material including a tank, a stationary ring in the side of said tank, a rotor having a main hub portion, said rotor hub located within said ring, said stationary ring having a frusto-conical attrition ing surface inclined upwardly at an acute angle with respect to the plane of rotation of said rotor, shearing and shredding teeth on the outer periphery of said stationary ring, one edge of each shearing and shredding tooth extending in alignment with a radius of said rotor, grooves between said teeth extending inwardly to the inner periphery of said ring, a plurality of prong-like blades extending obliquely upwardly from the face of said rotor hub near the periphery of said rotor hub and extending over the frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring to the outer periphery of the shredding teeth on said ring, said blades being inverted U-shaped in cross section, the under side faces of said blades overlying said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring, said under side faces lying in a frusto-conical surface capable of mating with said surface of said ring, whereby said blades can move over said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said ring with very slight clearance, said blades being regularly spaced and positioned at an angle with respect to the radii of said rotor hub, and means for causing longitudinal axial adjustment of said rotor, whereby to adjust the clearance between said blades and said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said ring.

6. A machine for treating fibrous material including a tank, a stationary ring in the side of said tank, a rotor having a main hub portion, said rotor hub having a conical face, said rotor hub located within said ring, said stationary ring having a frusto-conical attritioning surface inclined in an opposite direction with respect to the conical face of said rotor hub, shearing and shred of each shearing and shredding tooth extending ding teeth on the outer periphery of said stationary ring, one edge of each shearing and shredding tooth extending in alignment with a radius of said rotor hub, another edge of each shearing and shredding tooth having an outer portion arranged at angularity with a radius of said rotor hub and extending obliquely forwardly with respect to the direction of rotation of said rotor, grooves between said teeth extending inwardly to the inner periphery of said ring, said grooves deepened considerably near their outer ends, grooves on the top faces of said teeth extending radially with respect to said rotor hub, said latter mentioned grooves and said grooves between said teeth forming an attritioning surface on the frusto-conical face of said ring, a plurality of blades extending obliquely upwardly from said conical face of said rotor huh near the periphery of said rotor hub, and extending over the frustoconical attritioning surface of said stationary ring to the outer periphery of the shredding teeth on said ring, the under side faces of said blades overlying said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring, said under side faces lying in a frusto-conical surface capable of mating with said surface of said ring, whereby said blades can move over said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said ring with very slight clearance, said blades being regularly spaced and positioned at an angle with respect to the radii of said rotor hub, the top ridges of said blades extending in a frusto-conical surface inclined at a less angle than the under sides of said blades, and means for causing longitudinal axial adjustment of said rotor, whereby to adjust the clearance between said blades andsaid frusto-conical attritioning surface of said ring.

'7. A machine for treating fibrous material including a tank, a discharge port in one side of the tank, a stationary ring in the opposite side of said tank, a rotor having a main hub portion, said rotor hub located within said ring, said rotor hub having a cylindrical periphery, an annular space between said periphery of said rotor hub under side faces of said blades overlying said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said stationary ring, and said under side faces lying in a frusto-conical surface capable of mating with said surface of said ring, whereby said blades can move over said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said ring with very slight clearance, a housing on said tank on the outside of said rotor hub,

means for causing longitudinal axial adjustment of said rotor, whereby to adjust the clearance between saidblades and said frusto-conical attritioning surface of said ring, a chamber in the bottom of said tank for collecting foreign material, and a discharge outlet in said tank bottom.

8i The combination as set forth in claim 7 with an inlet in said housing on said tank on the out-- side of said rotor hub, arranged for introducing mixing materials into said latter mentioned housing.

CHARLES W. MORDEN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 522,807 Strong July 10, 1894 1,431,422 Randecker Oct. 10, 1922 2,129,789 Seaborne Sept. 13, 1938 2,325,159 Coghill July 27, 1943 2,351,492 Cowles June 13, 1944 2,424,726 Wells July 29, 1947 2,527,772 Stapley et al Oct. 31, 1950 

